Kav's Pumpkin Snickerdoodles!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

by Kav

We can all thank Simba for this recipe. Isn’t he adorable? Such a manly man with a tender heart…unless you’re a squirrel or a bunny or a cat or…Anyhow, the poor dear is going to be a tad put out when I reveal his little secret…Ahem, he has a delicate digestive system. If you’re a dog owner you know what that means! If you’re not a dog owner you can probably imagine what it means, but why you would want to, I don’t know. Besides, it’s not really the proper thing to talk about in this classy café. The only reason I bring it up at all is that Simba’s ‘condition’ is responsible for my delving into a variety of pumpkin recipes.

Amazing Dog Tip :  You all know that Mary Poppins song – A Spoonful of Sugar…well, the canine version is A Spoonful of Pumpkin. Seriously, a glop in the morning kibble and another glop in the evening kibble makes Simba…ah, how shall I say this politely? Perfect in every way. :)

The thing is, canned pumpkin doesn’t have a long shelf life. I fill two ice cube trays and have some ‘fresh’ on hand for a couple of days but after that it starts to grow fur – and not the soft, Simba kind. So every couple of weeks I try out a new pumpkin recipe. You would not believe the number of bread, cake and cookie recipes that involve pumpkin! And this one – Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – is my favourite so far and not just because it’s so much fun to say snickerdoodle.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

3 ¾ cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

½ dark brown sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating:

½ cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

Dash of allspice

Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat together sugars and butter. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients. Don’t over mix. The batter is kind of goopy and I’ve found it’s easier to use a good ol’ wooden spoon instead of a mixer. Cover the dough and refrigerate until firm (about an hour.)

Preheat oven 350

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In small bowl mix the coating ingredients. Scoop up about 2 tbsp of dough, roll into ball and then into the sugar/spice mixture. Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Press down with fork to flatten.

Bake 10 minutes – cookies remain pale so don’t overcook. Delicious with tea or hot chocolate.